


There now, steady love, so few come and don't go

by Elisexyz



Series: 25 days of Swanfire fic-mas [15]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Car Accidents, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Hospitals, Injury, Pre-Season/Series 01, Tallahassee Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 03:57:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17093582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: Neal and Emma celebrate their first Christmas together in an hospital. Because they are just that lucky.





	There now, steady love, so few come and don't go

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "Christmas movies/specials" prompt in the [ "25 days of fic-mas" challenge on Tumblr](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/tagged/25-days-of-fic-mas/chrono). Tallahassee Era, fluff, warning for a (mild) head injury. Title from [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6CqOj4TpNo).

“You are driving for a month straight,” Emma says, trying to glare him into submission in the hopes that acting angry will mask that she’s about a minute away from bursting into tears. Which would be undignified and very stupid, because he’s obviously healthy enough to be amused by her threat. “No, scratch that, you are driving for a _year_.”

“I’d think that after this you _wouldn’t_ want me at the wheel,” he points out, grinning slightly.

Emma might just punch him. Or hug him. Maybe one after the other, just to be sure.

She hides her hands in between her legs, trying to prevent him from noticing that they are still shaking and trying to force herself to calm down already, which would probably be much easier if they weren’t still at the hospital and if he didn’t have stitches on his forehead.

“That’s a good point,” she grumbles, swallowing something thick.

It wasn’t really his fault: it’s freezing cold outside, and there was ice on the road, so he lost control for a minute, just enough to send them crashing. It wasn’t _that_ bad, but he hit his head and was unconscious for she doesn’t know how long – the paramedics immediately asked her when they arrived on the scene, and to her it felt like a whole bunch of minutes before he woke up, but she has no way of knowing; they also asked about his blood type and medical history and family and a whole bunch of other stuff that makes her head spin only thinking about it: she’s pretty sure that Neal was mildly confused by half of the things that they were saying, and she wasn’t of much help beyond informing them that he isn’t under any medication –, there was blood and she _panicked_.

They said that it’s a concussion, that they gave him some medication and that they are going to keep them at the hospital for a few hours: if the symptoms improve, they’ll send them off with instructions on what to pay attention to and recommend that they come back if there are any problems.

The hospital is considerably warmer than the car – their very much in need of repairs car; how the hell are they going to afford _that_? She doesn’t want to ditch it –, and in a way it’s a consolation that they are surrounded by people who can make sure that Neal doesn’t drop dead on her, but— she wants to be out of there _so_ bad.

“I’m sorry, this probably isn’t how you imagined our first Christmas together going,” Neal offers, with an apologetic smile.

“Well, it could be worse,” she replies, coming up with a decent smile and shrugging. “At least it’s warm in here. And, look, you can finally watch _Home Alone_!” she adds, pointing at the small tv in the bedroom. They can’t hear much because there are other patients talking and not many actually paying attention, but she supposes she could raise the volume a little if need be.

Neal apparently hasn’t seen many movies— actually, he rarely gets pop culture references, and nine times out of ten when a famous movie comes up he has never seen it. _Home alone_ is no exception, and she was secretly planning on finding some money to pay for a motel room for the night, somewhere with a tv so that they could watch all the Christmas movies on air.

Guess they’ll start their marathon at the hospital.

“Right,” he says, thoughtfully. He gives her an ounce over, and she stiffens a little, trying to mask the remains of her panic from earlier – he really doesn’t need to worry about that now –, then he opens his arm as an invitation. “Come on, get in here.”

Well. She probably shouldn’t be allowed on his bed, but it’s not like he has messed up his shoulder, he doesn’t need _space_ — she, on the other hand, definitely needs a hug. And the nurse hasn’t been around for a while anyway, worst case scenario she’ll appear by the door and tell her to get back to the chair.

She reciprocates his smile, sliding right next to him as he shifts a little to his right so that she isn’t lying on the edge. She rests her head against his shoulder and wraps her left arm around his torso, discreetly taking a deep breath.

This is nice. And she doesn’t have to see the bandage anymore either.

They fall into a comfortable silence – between them, at least, considering that the chattering around them hasn’t quieted down –, and she keeps her eyes glued to the movie, even though she’s much more preoccupied with reassuring herself that everything is fine, it was just a bad scare.

There was a moment there when she thought that she’d _die_. And then a much longer time when she thought that he _had_ died, which was probably worse.

Neal rubs her arm reassuringly, tugging her a little closer.

“Hey,” she suddenly realizes. “You aren’t supposed to watch movies with a concussion.” She’s pretty sure he was recommended to rest. Although there were so many things said that she has an hard time remembering them all.

“Technically you aren’t supposed to be in my bed either,” he points out. Which, fair. “It’s fine, I’ll just stare at you, how’s that? It’s a much better view anyway.”

She snorts, flipping him in the arm before snuggling a little against his shoulder. “Idiot.”

“Nah, just honest,” he remarks. She realizes that she has been holding a bit too tightly onto him, so she forces herself to flex her fingers and relax a little. Obviously, he immediately notices. “Hey,” he says, quietly. “I’m alright, you know?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” she replies, without raising her eyes on him.

There’s a very high chance that he’ll see right through her bullshit as per usual, but she’d rather not make a fuss anyway.

“Next Christmas we sleep all day,” he says, resolutely, thankfully dropping the subject of her state of mind, even though he’s squeezing her a little tighter than before. “We’ll just get up to eat. No driving, just snuggling.”

She smiles a little at how easily he makes plans for the future when she knows for a fact he has had as many issues as her when it comes to finding a permanent family, and she nods against his shoulder.

“Yeah, I like it. Let’s do that.” _Next year_ , she mentally adds, a little in awe at the realization that she might just start believing it.  

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including: 
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


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